Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 121764 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121764 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
The kid needed to clean up his performance if he wanted a permanent place as a center in the NHL.
“I’ve been practicing,” Carter defended. “Besides, you’ve been so busy crawling up Maven’s ass, my bet is you’ll be too distracted to play.”
“Hey, leave my ass out of this,” Maven called from the kitchen where she was organizing glassware in the cabinets.
“But it’s the best one I’ve ever seen,” Carter said with a pout, which earned him a slug on the arm from Vince.
“Gotta say I agree on that one,” I piped in, ducking before Vince had the chance to pull me into a chokehold. “I still dream about that yellow dress…”
I smirked with the tease, one I knew would piss Vince off. Maven was his fiancée now, but she’d been in all our lives throughout the season as a reporter tasked with covering Tanev’s first year in the NHL. We all knew she was off limits, and we loved her more like a sister now than anything.
But I wouldn’t miss out on a chance to give Tanny Boy a hard time.
Vince shoved Carter out of the way and started chasing me, and I dodged the coffee table and hopped over the couch, staying just out of reach. Carter started humming the “Benny Hill Theme Song,” clapping his thighs in time with the bazooka sounds he was making with his mouth like we were Tom & Jerry.
I was sliding on my socks around the kitchen island, half-hiding behind a laughing, red-faced Maven, when a figure appeared in the foyer. I thought it was Will at first, so I kept up the charade. But when a suitcase was dropped to the marble floor and a soft cry followed behind it, we all stopped, our heads snapping in that direction.
And there she was.
Staring right at me.
The girl who was impossible to forget.
Those green eyes I’d fallen so easily into that night in Austin were glossy and red, her button-nose the same rosy shade. The bags under her eyes were a terrible hue of purple and gray, her shoulders slumped, bottom lip trembling the longer she stood there without anyone saying a word. She was petite even in heels, but standing there in flip flops, she was so slight, so small, like a little mouse.
Grace Tanev.
Her long, straight blonde hair that had blurred my vision the night I twirled her around on the dance floor in Austin was a tangled mess, dirty and greasy and dull. She’d covered it with a ripped-up ballcap that said Asshole on it.
But even with her lips in a flat line, I could remember her smile.
I could remember her laugh, her ridiculous dance moves, her even more ridiculous questions.
I remembered everything.
As put out as she looked, her bronze skin still blazed against the white t-shirt she wore, against the tiny denim shorts she wore with it, like she had been at the beach for weeks. Her shirt had a cartoon of an opossum wielding a gun like a cowboy and the text under it said we ride at dusk.
I would have laughed if the sight of her didn’t make my chest spark with something possessive and feral.
She looked like hell, like she’d been through hell, and yet she was still the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
Before I could think better of it, I started toward her — at the very same time Vince did. He gave me a strange look before I stopped in my tracks and he continued on, rushing to his sister and wrapping her in a fierce hug.
Maven turned back to unpacking, giving them privacy, and Carter pretended to be on his phone.
I, on the other hand, couldn’t look away.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
A flash of that night with her danced in my vision, and I knew the answer to my question. I thought I’d never see her again. I thought I was strong, resisting the urge to text her or to attempt to keep the connection we had so easily when I knew it was a bad idea.
But now she was here, in the same room with me, and I felt her pulling me in like a goddamn magnet.
Vince stepped back after a moment, holding Grace’s shoulders in his hands as he spoke in a hushed voice to her. She said something back, and then Vince hugged her again and grabbed her suitcase. They walked down the hall and up the stairs, and when they were gone, Maven blew out a breath.
“That didn’t look good,” she said.
Carter’s mouth pulled to the side as he looked up the stairs and then back at me. His eyes narrowed a bit then, but before he could say a word, Vince was back, running a hand over his head.
“She okay?” Maven asked.
“No,” he said. “But she will be. I told her she could stay here with us.”